There is an area of debate where Ueshiba stated he gave Takeda a home.
Some time later, when Takeda heard of it he sent a letter to Ueshiba, delivered by Sato, which clarified that the house was one of many that had been destroyed by fire, and essentially he gifted a burned out mess on a small plot of land that Takeda demolished and built a house on.
I believe the letter outlines several areas of gossip or stories that got back to Takeda. The letter was more or less addressing a series of questions (five I believe) of "Why are you lying about me?"

Secondarily, Ellis is correct about prolonged training times of Takeda's deshi. This was not for Ueshiba alone. Tasio Horikawa and Sagawa's talk of lengthy training sessions outside of formal seminars. What is also not discussed is their own training between Takeda visits. In those long winters I suspect thousands of hours were added up in their pursuit of aiki.

On succession
I think it was clear that Tokimune was to succeed Takeda. Sagawa was asked to in case of Tokimune's death and there was some sort of written document Sagawa asked for. Appearence can be dicey. Ueshiba was undoubtedly one of his favorites. Was he THEE guy? How much can we trust from third party history? Who can really know. He created Menkyo Kaidens, so he allowed transmission. Since he never claimed to be soke who could he award soke to?
Succession with Takeda might have been as flighty as his art; no history of densho anywhere, then he has the only known copies that appeared with him, then he added scrolls, the creation of a Menkyo, etc. Some of which seemed painfully transparent.